The
Arlington, Va.-based conservancy says it has studied the Mount Bethel
Fens on Audubon Drive in the township since the mid-1980s.

Despite
some resident opposition, township supervisors late last year voted 3-2 to
give the conservancy $314,387 to help purchase rights to the 94.5
acres, said Ellen Lott, project manager for the conservancy. Supervisors Joe
Battillo and Larry Hallett voted against the grant.

The conservancy is also asking Northampton County for a grant of $276,687 to finalize the purchase, but it has yet to be approved, Lott said. The county's open space coordinator, Bryan Cope, said he will present the grant application at the next meeting of county council's parks and open space committee; the full council would vote at its meeting, likely Feb. 20.

The property owners live on the land but Lott said they will welcome school groups and research teams to study the land, as well as Boy Scout groups. The final public access agreements have yet to be reached, Lott said.

Swampland concerns

Some township residents aren’t happy with the money being spent on what they say are swamplands.

Resident Antoni Scott said he would much rather see farmland preserved. He said the property in question isn’t able to be developed in the first place.

But Lott said only about 2.3 acres of the 94 are considered wetlands, while the rest is wooded area. The saturated ground houses numerous, globally rare calcareous fens, which are wetlands that have become increasingly rare in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the conservancy says.

“I don’t think people saying it is swampland have been on the property,” she said. “It is part of the wetland complex but it’s absolutely developable.”

Lott said the conservancy wants to make sure the development rights are extinguished to conserve the area. The land was appraised at $5,750 per acre, Lott said.

The property supports six endangered species, five that are threatened and two under special concern, Lott said, and it is considered a habitat for nesting and song birds.

Scott also voiced concerns about an outside appraiser, not a local one, looking at the land. Lott said an outside appraiser provides an unbiased viewpoint.

“We have mentioned it a couple of times: Local people do know the land, but you have to be very unbiased and look at what the value of the property is on that particular day,” she said.

Lott said an appraisal is done at the beginning of the process and again at the end.

Vincent Dowling, the West Chester, Pa.-based appraiser of the property, said, “What the appraiser needs to do is to remain neutral in the deal.”

He said the characteristics of the land are considered before numbers are thrown around, which includes visiting the site several times.

Appraisers must also know what the goal is for the land when looking at it, he said.

Dowling said the property will benefit the community.

Land vital to water

Elise Transue, daughter of Barry and Doris Transue, said the family decided to sell the development rights to the property to The Nature Conservancy based on an environmentalist and conservationist perspective.

Transue said her grandfather bought the property, formerly a farm, in the 1940s, and it’s been part of a farmland preservation program since shortly after that.

Selling the development rights will allow the family to continue the legacy he started on the land, conserving the waterways and the botanical life on the property, Transue said.

“We know how vital clean water and fresh water is,” she said. “It’s a struggle for people to understand.”